“Your Majesty!” Samuel Grant took the lead in bowing, his face serious, and said, “How could Your Majesty possibly risk yourself?”

Henry Clark glanced over a few times and noticed that all those who had come were scholars, who in this era were generally referred to as Confucian scholars.

“Your Majesty bears not just the fate of a man and a woman on your shoulders, but that of an entire tribe, countless people!” Samuel Grant looked pained and deeply concerned, his face full of lingering fear. “If something is intolerable, just send soldiers to deal with it. How could Your Majesty personally take such risks?”

To be completely honest, whether before or after his transmigration, Henry Clark never had a good impression of Confucian scholars.

Maybe there’s some misunderstanding? For example, modern Confucian scholars are really quite disappointing, and historically, those who betrayed their country for personal gain were mostly Confucian scholars. That’s why there’s a saying: “Confucian scholars rush to betray the nation, while widows uphold their virtue without hesitation.” In any case, Henry Clark just doesn’t like Confucian scholars, or rather, most modern people feel the same way.

The Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin was exactly when Confucian scholars were scrambling to defect to the Hu people. Maybe they had their reasons, but Henry Clark is a straightforward person—dislike is dislike. With such a preconceived notion, his attitude toward Confucian scholars has never been very good.

Samuel Grant was the first to improve Henry Clark’s view of Confucian scholars, letting him realize that in this era, not all Confucian scholars were traitors—some were not so shameless. When disaster struck, Samuel Grant still had the courage to lead his people in escape. Even if his courage didn’t match his abilities, he was still far better than most other Confucian scholars.

“Hmm? I’ll be more careful in the future.” Henry Clark nodded and asked, “Have you finished handling your affairs?”

The group had already swelled to nearly thirty thousand people. Without organization, they couldn’t even travel. Henry Clark gathered all the literate people, paired them with capable assistants, and managed them layer by layer.

The truth is, “Age of Empires II: The Conquerors” doesn’t produce any specialized civil administration units, and the intelligence of the system-generated characters is still questionable. Henry Clark really could only rely on the literate people among the Jin.

It took nearly four months—maybe it was around March 341 AD? That is, springtime—when Henry Clark led nearly thirty thousand people back to Changguang Commandery. Along the way, they traveled along the coast, mainly to secure food supplies from the sea.

The scholars among the Jin, like Samuel Grant, were quite surprised that Henry Clark even had a navy. In reality, it was nothing of the sort—just some NPC fishing boats that Henry Clark had developed through the system for fishing.

To be honest, Henry Clark spared no expense to bring his people back. Nearly thirty thousand people consumed most of the food he had painstakingly accumulated, not to mention that at least thirty fishing boats were lost at sea due to accidents during transport.

Changguang Commandery was first established in the early Jian’an period of the Han dynasty, with its seat at Changguang (now within Laixi City, Shandong), but was soon abolished. In the third year of Xianning in the Jin dynasty (277 AD), it was reestablished, with its seat at Buqi (now north of Laoshan County). Its jurisdiction roughly covered the present-day counties of Qingdao, Laoshan, Laixi, Haiyang, Jimo, and Laiyang in Shandong. During Northern Wei, the seat was moved to Jiaodong City (now Pingdu), and during Northern Qi, to Huang County (now part of Shandong). It was abolished at the beginning of the Sui dynasty.

Of course, Henry Clark didn’t know any of this history about Changguang Commandery. If he hadn’t taken in some local Jin people, he wouldn’t even have known where he had transmigrated to.

Like so many other commanderies, they might have had various histories, but now they were all pretty much the same—vast lands with sparse populations.

Upon returning to Changguang Commandery, the group continued along the coastline. There was no welcoming crowd; instead, Henry Clark received reports that a group of Di people with the surname Xu had gathered over two hundred men and were blocking the road ahead, saying they wanted to settle all accounts at once.

In these times, the Di people were more like orthodox Central Plains folk than some Han descendants. Simply put, some Di families had become thoroughly sinicized, while the Jin, due to their precarious situation, had lost their original customs. If you didn’t pay close attention, you couldn’t even tell most people apart—whether they were Di or Jin.

The Xu family of the Di was a fully sinicized clan, a major family in Gui County, Changguang Commandery. Henry Clark’s base was only thirty kilometers from Gui County. At first, there were frequent clashes, but after both sides showed their strength, it seemed neither could do anything to the other, so they managed to coexist peacefully.

Although Changguang Commandery was a commandery, according to Henry Clark’s long-term reconnaissance, the population was at most fifty or sixty thousand, and very scattered. The most populous place was the commandery capital, Buqi City. Changguang Commandery was not small, but with only fifty or sixty thousand people, you can imagine how desolate it was. There were fewer than five hundred Jie people, mostly concentrated in the county seat of Buqi; there were about ten thousand Di, Qiang, and Xiongnu people, and the rest were all Jin.

Henry Clark looked at the massive group, his brows furrowing.

[The commotion is too big!]

Along the way, it wasn’t as if no Hu people had noticed this huge group, but Henry Clark had managed to deal with them in various ways. Now, as they got closer to their settlement, even if he could deal with them, so what?

[Since the commotion is already so big, might as well make it even bigger!]

With that thought, Henry Clark gave orders in his mind to the system units at the base—to assemble the troops and bring in some necessary supplies.

……